Biography of William E. SimondsConnecticut Biographies

WILLIAM EDGAR SIMONDS, HARTFORD: Attorney at Law.

William Edgar Simonds was born at Collinsville, in the town of Canton, Hartford county, Connecticut, November 24,
1842. He was educated at the graded and high schools in Collinsville, graduated at the State Normal School in New
Britain in 1860, and taught school until 1862. August 14, 1862, he enlisted in Company A of the Twenty fifth Connecticut
Volunteers, as a private, and was soon promoted to be sergeant major. At the battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana, April
14, 1863, he was promoted to be lieutenant of Company I for gallantry in the field, and was discharged from the
service, August 26, 1863, by reason of the expiration of his term. He then entered Yale Law School and there graduated
in 1865. Since that date he has practiced law in Hartford. He is the author of books on patent law as follows:
"Design Patents," "Digest of Patent Office Decisions," "Summary of Patent Law," and
"Digest of Patent Cases." Since 1884 he has filled the lectureship on patent law at Yale Law School.
In 1890 Yale University gave him the honorary degree of A.M. Mr. Simonds was a member of the Connecticut house
of representatives in 1883 and chairman of the committed on railroads. He was speaker of the Connecticut house
in 1885. He has been a trustee of the Storrs Agricultural School of Connecticut since 1886. In 1888 he was elected
to congress from the first district of Connecticut. He signalized his service in the fifty first congress by his
successful efforts in connection with international copyright. A bill looking to that end had been decisively defecated
in the house when Mr. Simonds drew and introduced another bill and secured for it, after repeated contests, a victory
quite as decisive as its former defeat, which bill subsequently became a law, it being the first international
copyright act of the United States, a measure which had been contended for ever since Henry Clay began the agitation
of the subject a half century before.

His record in congress has been one of great activity and intense loyalty to the interests of his constituents
and the state. The services which he has been able to render will be borne in mind by his party, who, no less than
the entire district, have been placed under lasting obligation to him for the conscientious and honorable work
he has performed while an incumbent of this important office.